Playboy’s 38th Annual Jazz Festival is Coming Up

By Sly SanchoApril 22, 2016Music Festivals
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By Sly Sancho | April 22, 2016

While we love rock, modern rock nowadays wouldn’t be anywhere today had there not been jazz. Jazz’s influences stretched from the stage to the way that people danced, women’s fashion, chord structures, and social norms. While many within the Caucasian communities tried to distance themselves from what they referred to as devil music, jazz was able to overcome the naysayers, reaching people who would later become influential and prominent figures with a large exertion of social power.

In particular, we can point to the Beats who were able to infuse jazz into their everyday life. More specifically, we can look to Jack Kerouac, who’s writing often was a blend of whatever drug he happened to be on and the jazzy rhythms of the music he most adored. His love for all things jazz was even more evident in his participation in Pull My Daisy as well as his published and unpublished writings on the genre.

Beyond literature, we have the impacts of jazz on later bands in the late sixties during the Jazz-rock or Jazz Fusion era, where bands integrated Jazz into aspects of their music. Think along the lines of the Grateful Dead, or The Doors, or Frank Zappa. Bands who’s sounds influenced music for generations, either directly, or by influencing the music of other bands who became influential themselves.

Unfortunately, nowadays, Jazz isn’t as readily available on the radio stations as it used to be. Most of the time if we’re trying to listen to a jazz station on Pandora, we end up getting to hear the classics like Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk, while new artists are readily paving the way for a new era of traditional jazz music.

lopez-175Enter the Playboy Jazz Festival, which include Janelle Monáe, Cubans Los Van Van, Seth MacFarlane, Child Prodigy Joey Alexander, and host George Lopez, the event is set to give the audience not just a taste of traditional jazz, but also a look at how jazz has been reinterpreted over the years, modernized for other cultures, and made into a sound that distinctly represents each of the artists.

Tickets are still available for both days, and you are allowed to bring your own alcohol (wine bottles and glasses or beer bottles are notably allowed), so if you’re looking for an awesome date idea, or just a good night of music head on over to Hollywood Bowl for tickets and more information about the lineup.